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Psychoactive Substances

2017-12-14T15:57:00+00:00

What are new psychoactive substances?New psychoactive substances – often incorrectly called legal highs – contain one or more chemical substances which produce similar effects to illegal drugs (like cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy).

Although some of these so-called ‘legal highs’ have been legal in the past, many are currently illegal. And it’s important to realise that when the Psychoactive Substances Act comes into effect in spring 2016, none of these drugs will be legal to produce, supply, or import (even for personal use) for human consumption.

New psychoactive substances might sound like an awkward term, but it’s more accurate than legal highs. You’ll still hear people talking about legal highs, and since it’s a widely understood term, you might still find it used on this site. But they’re all illegal when the new law comes into effect.

There’s not enough known about many of these drugs to know about their potency, their effects on people, or what happens when they’re used with other substances or alcohol' The packaging might describe a list of ingredients but you can’t be sure that this is what’s inside. So you can’t really be sure what you’ve bought or been given, or what effect it’s likely to have on you or your friends. Many NPS are sold under brand names like ‘Clockwork Orange’, ‘Bliss’, ‘Mary Jane’ and some have been linked to poisoning, emergency hospital admissions and, in some cases deaths.

The main effects of almost all psychoactive drugs, can be described using four main categories:

About The Tendring Community Safety Partnership

In 1998 it was identified by the then government that in order to effectively tackle crime and disorder agencies needed to work together to tackle identified issues collectively. Community Safety Partnership's (CSP's) formerly Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRP's) were set up to be the conduit between different agencies and organisations both statutory and voluntary.

The partnership includes Tendring District Council, Essex Police, Essex County Council, Police and Crime Commissioner's Office, Essex Police, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, Essex Community Rehabilitation Company, North East Essex NHS and Community Voluntary Services Tendring.

Working hard to make Tendring an even safer place to live, work and visit